The Hunting Dogs Read online

  Praise for The Hunting Dogs

  ‘Yet again the novelist convinces with a satisfying, credible police procedural. This time, William Wisting faces a major life crisis: he is himself investigated, and forced to examine his police career in a new light. His journalist daughter Line plays an important role in the book, turning the novel into both a depiction of the father-daughter relationship and a portrayal of the relationship between the police and the media.’

  Riverton Prize jury’s comments on The Hunting Dogs

  ‘All lovers of crime fiction should read his new book. It is simply sensationally successful.’

  Torbjørn Ekelund, Dagbladet

  ‘Jorn Lier Horst narrates this story using the best devices of the genre, without using any easy ways out. There is a feeling that the book comes with a built-in side-shift mechanism.’

  Geir Rakvaag, Dagsavisen

  ‘Strikes to the very heart of the reader.’

  Kjell Einar Øren, Haugesunds Avis

  ‘In The Hunting Dogs, Jorn Lier Horst has delivered an outstanding novel – his best to date.’

  Svend Einar Hansen, Østlands-Posten

  ‘The Hunting Dogs is a book to hunt for.’

  Helge Ottesen, Varden

  ‘It could hardly be more accomplished … The Hunting Dogs has everything you could wish for in this genre: intensity, intrigue of the most exquisite kind and powerful character depiction containing complex psychological depth, both of the central character and the perpetrators of crime. All carried off by a writer who both builds up and propels forward the action of the novel in a way that lends his material total conviction.’

  Finn Stenstad, Tønsbergs Blad

  ‘Listen up: The Hunting Dogs is a sure-fire Christmas gift.’

  Knut Holt, Fædrelandsvennen

  ‘Successful hunting expedition.’

  Gunn Magni Galaaen, Trønder-Avisa

  ‘Jorn Lier Horst has produced a page-turner with his latest novel, The Hunting Dogs. Once again.’

  Eskil Skjeldal, Telemarksavisa

  ‘A crime novel you’re guaranteed to be unable to put down.’

  Moss Avis

  ‘A brilliant crime novel that makes Horst one of my favourite Norwegian writers.’

  Tarald Aano, Stavanger Aftenblad

  Praise for Closed for Winter

  ‘Top class crime writing.’

  Sindre Hovdenakk, Verdens Gang

  ‘Lovers of crime fiction – read this!’

  Knut Holt, Fædrelandsvennen

  ‘Closed for Winter is a good, well-grounded crime story.’

  Helge Ottesen, Varden

  ‘Jorn Lier Horst has pulled it off again.’

  Svein Einar Hansen, Østlandsposten

  ‘This is a thoroughly good crime novel.’

  Finn Stenstad, Tønsberg Blad

  ‘Classic police procedural from an author who knows what he is doing … I recommend that every fan of crime novels should dedicate some time to Jorn Lier Horst’s writing. Make a pleasurable start with Closed for Winter.’

  Torbjørn Ekelund, Dagbladet

  Praise for Dregs

  ‘Jorn Lier Horst has, right from his debut in 2004, set a sensationally good pace in his crime novels, and has today gained entry into the circle of our very best writers in that genre.’

  Terje Stemland, Aftenposten, Norway

  ‘Just as good are the descriptions of the characters in Jorn Lier Horst’s book. They are nuanced and interesting, absolutely human. Many have known it for a long time, but now it ought to be acknowledged as a truth for all readers of crime fiction: William Wisting is one of the great investigators in Norwegian crime novels.’

  Norwegian Book Club

  (Book of the Month, Crime and Thrillers)

  ‘I’m impressed once again that he has created such a sterling crime mystery as Dregs. For he hasn’t only made use of his comprehensive knowledge, he has also done it with creative finesse.’

  Marius Aronsen, Secretary of Riverton Club, Norway

  ‘Once more Jorn Lier Horst has produced a sound criminal narrative with an intricate plot, an action-packed story with Chief Inspector William Wisting as a credible central character. Jorn Lier Horst has the great advantage of his own experiences as a police investigator, and is able to bring real authenticity to such aspects as investigative methodology and tactical planning.’

  Svend E. Hansen, Østlandsposten, Norway

  Jorn Lier Horst was born in 1970, in Bamble, Telemark, Norway. Between 1995 and 2013, when he turned to full time writing, he worked as a policeman in Larvik, eventually becoming head of investigations there. His William Wisting series of crime novels has been extremely successful, having sold more than 500,000 copies in Scandinavia, UK, Germany, Netherlands and Thailand. Dregs, sixth in the series, was published in English by Sandstone Press in 2011, and Closed for Winter, winner of Norway’s Booksellers’ Prize, in 2012. Closed for Winter was also shortlisted for the prestigious Riverton Prize or The Golden Revolver, for best Norwegian crime novel of the year. Subsequently, The Hunting Dogs, successor to Closed for Winter won both the Golden Revolver and The Glass Key, which widened the scope to best crime fiction in all the Nordic countries. Jorn Lier Horst’s most recent William Wisting novel, The Caveman, will be published by Sandstone Press in 2015.

  Anne Bruce, who lives on the Isle of Arran in Scotland, formerly worked in education and has a longstanding love of Scandinavia and Norway in particular. Having studied Norwegian and English at Glasgow University, she is the translator of Jorn Lier Horst’s Dregs and Closed for Winter , and also Anne Holt’s Blessed are Those who Thirst (2012) and Death of the Demon (2013), as well as Merethe Lindstrøm’s Nordic Prize winning Days in the History of Silence (2013).

  Also published by Sandstone Press

  Dregs

  Closed for Winter

  THE HUNTING DOGS

  JORN LIER HORST

  First published in Great Britain

  and the United States of America

  Sandstone Press Ltd

  PO Box 5725

  One High Street

  Dingwall

  Ross-shire

  IV15 9WJ

  Scotland.

  www.sandstonepress.com

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form without the express written permission of the publisher.

  Copyright © Gyldendal Norsk Forlag AS 2012

  [All rights reserved.]

  Translation © Anne Bruce 2014

  Published in English in 2014 by Sandstone Press Ltd

  English language editor: Robert Davidson

  The moral right of Jorn Lier Horst to be recognised as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patent Act, 1988.

  This translation has been published with the financial support of NORLA.

  The publisher acknowledges support from Creative Scotland towards publication of this volume.

  ISBN: 978-1-908737-63-2

  ISBNe: 978-1-908737-64-9

  Cover design by Freight Design, Glasgow

  Ebook by Iolaire Typesetting, Newtonmore

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20
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  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Chapter 62

  Chapter 63

  Chapter 64

  Chapter 65

  Chapter 66

  Chapter 67

  Chapter 68

  Chapter 69

  Chapter 70

  Chapter 71

  Chapter 72

  Chapter 73

  Chapter 74

  Chapter 75

  Chapter 76

  Chapter 77

  Chapter 78

  Chapter 79

  Chapter 80

  Chapter 81

  Chapter 82

  Chapter 83

  Chapter 84

  WILLIAM WISTING

  William Wisting is a career policeman who has risen through the ranks to become Chief Inspector in the Criminal Investigation Department of Larvik Police, just like his creator, author Jorn Lier Horst. The Hunting Dogs is the eighth title in the series, the third to be published in English, and finds him aged fifty-two, the widowed father of grown up twins, Thomas and Line. Wisting’s wife, Ingrid, went to Africa to work on a NORAD project but was killed there at the end of The Only One, the fifth title in the series.

  Thomas serves in the military, in Afghanistan at the time of The Hunting Dogs. Daughter Line is an investigative journalist based in Oslo, whose career frequently intersects with that of her father. Wisting, at first apprehensive, has come to value how she is able to operate in ways that he cannot, often turning up unexpected clues and insights.

  After Ingrid’s death Wisting became involved with another woman, Suzanne Bjerke, a former child welfare worker who, at the beginning of The Hunting Dogs, has recently opened a café-bar in Stavern. However, for Wisting, Ingrid remains the absence around which all else revolves. The development of this new relationship is charted in subsequent books, including this one.

  Crucial to the series are Wisting’s colleagues in the police. Audun Vetti, the arrogant Assistant Chief of Police who was also the police prosecutor, came to the fore in Dregs, when the question of how much information to divulge to the press was bitterly contested between the two. In Closed for Winter, he had been promoted to the post of Deputy Chief Constable. Wisting has more positive relationships with certain trusted colleagues: old school Nils Hammer, whose background in the Drugs Squad has made him cynical, the younger Torunn Borg whom Wisting has come to rely on thanks to her wholly professional approach and outlook, and Mortensen, the crime scene examiner who is usually first on the scene.

  The setting is Vestfold county on the south-west coast of Norway, an area popular with holidaymakers, where rolling landscapes and attractive beaches make an unlikely setting for crime. The principal town of Larvik, where Wisting is based, is located 105 km (65 miles) southwest of Oslo. The wider Larvik district has 41,000 inhabitants, 23,000 of whom live in the town itself, and covers 530 square km. Larvik is noted for its natural springs, but its modern economy relies heavily on agriculture, commerce and services, light industry and transportation, as well as tourism. There is a ferry service from Larvik to Hirsthals in Denmark.

  At the beginning of The Hunting Dogs, we learn that Wisting has added to his duties as head of CID by becoming a visiting lecturer at the recently opened Police College campus in Stavern. A lecture he had given recently had been about ethics and morality, a topic that becomes the central focus of this new novel. Jorn Lier Horst’s own deep experience of police procedures and processes brings a strong sense of the novels in the William Wisting series being firmly grounded in reality.

  The Hunting Dogs won the Norwegian Riverton Prize (Golden Revolver) in 2012 as well as the Scandinavian Glass Key in 2013. Jorn Lier Horst worked as a policeman in Larvik between 1995 and 2013 when he turned to full time writing.

  1

  Rain lashed the windowpane, streaming down the glass like rivers, the wind so strong it had the bare branches of the poplars clawing at the walls of the cafe. William Wisting sat at a window table, watching as wet autumn leaves were torn from the pavement and tossed around.

  Wisting liked rain without understanding exactly why, but it seemed to help him take things easier, to relax and slow down a little. Cool jazz, mingling with the downpour, helped too. He turned towards the counter and the flickering shadows cast along the walls by the candles. Smiling at him, Suzanne Bjerke turned the music down another notch.

  Three teenagers were huddled round a table at the end of the counter; otherwise they were alone. Suzanne’s intimate, sophisticated café had become a favourite haunt of students from the newly established Police College campus.

  He turned towards the window again, where the words The Golden Peace were emblazoned in a curve of reversed frosted letters: Gallery and Coffee Bar. He did not know how long Suzanne had nursed her dream, but one winter evening she had put down her book to tell him the story of the Hudson River ferryman who, all his life, had sailed between New York and Jersey, back and forth, forth and back. Day after day, year after year he sailed until, one day, he made his big decision to turn the boat round and set out, full speed, for the great ocean he had dreamed about all his life. The very next day, she took the plunge and bought the café premises.

  When she asked him what his own dream was, he had to say that he didn’t know. He liked his life just as it was. A policeman at heart, he had no wish to be anything else. His work as a detective gave him a sense of purpose and brought meaning to his life. He drew the Sunday newspaper towards him and again peered into the night.

  Usually he sat further inside the café, where fewer people would notice him, but in this weather he felt he could sit undisturbed at a window table without passers-by recognising him and coming inside to engage him in conversation. Since he had reluctantly taken part in a television talk show, this was happening more frequently.

  One of the boys glanced in his direction. Wisting remembered him. At the beginning of term, he had been invited to deliver a lecture about ethics and morality and the boy had been sitting in the front row.

  The front page of the paper was devoted to slimming advice, warnings of more rain and intrigues on a TV reality programme. Only seldom did the Sundays contain fresh news. Canned goods were what his journalist daughter, Line, called the material lying in the editorial office for days, sometimes weeks, before being published. She had been a journalist on Verdens Gang for almost five years, had worked in various departments, but was currently on the crime desk, meaning that her editorial team occasionally covered cases he was working on.

  Wisting managed his double role of detective and father without too much difficulty. What he disliked was the thought of Line in close proximity to the grisly side of society. He had been a police officer for thirty-one years, and his work had given him insight into most kinds of brutality and barbarism, but also many sleepless nights, something he hoped his daughter would be spared.

  He leafed through the pages, skimming the news coverage, not expecting to find anything Lin
e had written since he knew she was on leave.

  Increasingly, he valued their discussions of current news stories. Though it had not been easy for him to admit, she had altered his views on his role as a police officer. Her outsider’s perspective had more than once made him reassess his fairly stale opinions of himself. As recently as his lecture to the students, when he had talked about how important it was for people’s security and confidence that police officers behaved with integrity, decency and propriety, he had realised that Line’s points of view had given him valuable ballast. He had tried to explain to his future colleagues the importance of these fundamental values in the role of the police within society, that it demanded impartiality and objectivity, honesty and sincerity, and an endless search for truth.

  When he reached the television schedules on the back pages, the students were at the door fastening their coats. The tallest made eye contact with Wisting, who smiled and responded with a nod of recognition.

  ‘Day off?’ the lad enquired.

  ‘That’s one of the advantages when you’ve been on the force as long as I have,’ Wisting replied. ‘Working from eight till four and free every weekend.’

  ‘Thanks for a great lecture, by the way.’

  ‘Nice of you to say so.’

  The student wanted to say something more, but was interrupted by Wisting’s phone. It was Line. ‘Hello, Dad. Has anyone from the newspaper phoned you?’

  ‘No,’ Wisting replied, nodding to the three students as they left. ‘Why? Has something happened?’

  ‘I’m in the editorial office now,’ she explained.

  ‘Aren’t you off duty?’

  ‘Yes, but I was at the gym and thought I would call in briefly.’ Wisting recognised much of himself in his daughter, especially her curiosity and desire always to be at the centre of events. ‘There’s going to be a piece about you in tomorrow’s newspaper,’ Line said, pausing before she continued, ‘but this time you’re the one they’re after. You’re the one they’re out to get.’